Childrens Books: Joy Berry's Help Me Be Good Series

For anyone who has read my hubs on parenting you might already know that I have a strong opinion about children learning values and needing to learn appropriate ways to behave. A lot of different behavior problems can cause concern for parents and sometimes we end up doing more harm than good by getting frustrated and impatient with our children.

As someone who has been trying for the last two decades to help parents better discipline and manage their kids  behavior  I can safely say no one book or author can have all the answers. There are so many variables from the style of parenting parents feel comfortable with to the particular needs of their specific children. One thing I have noticed is that children often learn better through play or through the metaphors or direct messages in stories.

We may live in a technological age but no matter what the medium is children are always interested in good stories and parents benefit when the stories have a message that is useful and valuable in terms of teaching our kids about some of the skills they need to help them cope as they make their way through life.  For parents finding good books that can aid and help them influence their children in a positive direction can be invaluable. When asked for parenting advice on behavior problems I often suggest the use of appropriate stories to help kids learn appropriate behavior.

Joy Berry is an author, educator, and child development specialist whose books are widely read with over 85 million copies sold worldwide. I first came across some of her books on one of the scholastic order forms that children often bring home from school. The books are very well written and really do a great job of helping kids learn about a variety of subjects. Some of the subjects covered in the Lets talk about series of books include 28 different titles that cover the following subjects:

Being Forgetful, Being Careless, Complaining, Being Messy, Being Wasteful, Overdoing It, Showing Off, Being a Bad Sport, Being Selfish, Being Greedy, Breaking Promises, Being Lazy, Disobeying, Lying, Interrupting, Whining, Throwing Tantrums, Teasing, Tattling, Gossiping, Being Rude, Snooping, Cheating, Stealing, Being Bullied, Being Bossy, Being Destructive, and Fighting.

Joy Berry’s let’s talk about series benefits children and parents. These books help kids understand why a certain behavior isn’t OK and they also help children understand the type of behavior they should be using instead of the unwanted behavior. They help parents find a way to talk about issues with their children that aren’t directly critical of their own child’s behavior. The books are fairly straightforward and are often humorous and they leave a lot of room for parents to have their own input. I think these books are a great starting point for helping kids discusses the temptations of certain unwanted behaviors. The books seem best for toddlers and preschoolers.

These books are just one way of helping parents address unwanted behaviour. It is still incumbent upon parents to discuss the positive behaviours they do want to see in their kids. In the case of unwanted behaviour the challenge for parents is to find the positive opposite of the specific behaviour they want to get rid of. It’s also important for parents to try to encourage the values that underlie the behaviours they do want, such as honesty, integrity, compassion, cooperation, orderliness, self control, and self discipline just to name a few.

The let’s talk about series can be purchased in a box set of all 28 titles. It also comes with triple CD of read-alongs and songs, it includes a bonus Parent's Guide with activities for every book, and there is a free download code for 28 additional Help Me Be Good songs. Overall, this is a very thorough and helpful childrens’ series that can really help parents with some of the behavior problems their kids may face. These books do help to cover a lot of important subjects and most parents should find them quite useful.